Central Vista

The 1960′s plan of Gujarat’s capital town Gandhinagar had provision of a grand boulevard – the Central Vista, as the focal point of the town that would run on a north-west, south-east axis from the railway station to the Sabarmati river. The vista was envisioned as a large public space for people to visit and enjoy. Forty years later the vision is under implementation now.

The state Urban Development Department (UDD) is now constructing a 2.9-km-long central vista at an estimated cost of Rs 17 crore, on the lines of the Delhi’s Rajpath, Capitol Centre and Lincoln Memorial Museum in the US(similar to the National Mall in Washington, United States). It will showcase the state’s history and also boast of a statue of Mahatma Gandhi placed in between.

The first phase of the project has already started, with construction of a 10-m road between Vidhan Sabha and the Mahatma Mandir has started. The parking facility, a walkway and cycle track on both sides is expected to be completed in the next 10 months. The forest department will develop a green zone along this stretch.

The stretch has been planned in a way so that one will be able to see the Mahatma Mandir while standing near the Gandhi statue, which is on the Gujarat Assembly campus.The only statue that can be sighted between the Mahatma statue and the mandir will be that of Baba Saheb Ambedkar.

Buildings near the National Mall in US are quite identical. But in Gandhinagar one cannot have identical buildings. This is because while one side of the road has the Udyog Bhavan the other side has the Town Hall. Hence the idea to have identical buildings was dropped by the government.

The second phase will involve construction of the road between Vidhan Sabha and Sabarmati river. A museum on state history and some other buildings would be also constructed near Sabarmati river.